MR. BEAR
Midu Hadi
Copyright 2013 Midu Hadi
Smashwords 1st Edition
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He enters the restaurant... a mountain of a man, with eyes as black as night and walks straight to the bartender.
“Hullo, Mr. Bear.” She grins at her nickname for him. “The usual?”
He nods, eyes stoically on the gleaming surface of the bar. Shaking her head at his habit of never meeting her eyes, she walks away to get his drink. As if sensing the environment to be safe for the time being, the guy raises his head to watch her retreating back. She knows that because, like always, she can feel his gaze burning into her skin.
“Here you go.” She places the huge tumbler full of steaming creamy milk in front of him. “Good for your bones.” She can’t resist teasing him at least once. Without a reply, he raises the drink to his lips and seems to get lost in lactic ecstasy.
Hours fly by. She watches him from the corner of her eyes, as she serves drinks to other customers, polishes glasses, and yells for the bouncers to break up drunken brawls. While the guy sits statuesque on the same stool, now frowning at his glass, as if surprised at its emptiness. Just a normal day at work. Why does he come here every day? Can’t he get a freakin’ glass of milk at home? She wonders that for the hundredth time. A month has passed since she started working here and his visits started the same night. She had thought the other locals would make fun of him when he ordered for the first time. Yet, no one seemed to want to cross paths with the giant; the rambunctious young men gave him a wide berth while the old timers nodded towards him respectfully whenever he entered the place.
She feels a grin stretching her face as she watches a blond woman, long hair and legs going on till Sunday, stalk towards him. Must be new around here or she wouldn’t be making that mistake! The blonde settles her non-existent butt at the edge of the stool next to Mr. Bear and waits to be noticed. The regulars, in turn, wait to be noticed by her. Minutes pass, she and her assets remain woefully ignored and she decides to take matters into her own hand.
“Hi! I’m Seraphina." She extends her hand.
Of course you are, you couldn’t be Jane or Anne like the rest of us mere mortals, she thinks, a tad bitterly. Not giving the guy a chance to respond (or ignore, in her opinion), she plows ahead: “Would you mind showing me around? I’m new here.” The end of the speech is punctuated by a squeal, as she touches his bulging bicep and feels it flex beneath her hand.
“Lady, remove your hand or lose it!” he growls, making her squawk indignantly. Chagrined, the blond flips her hair at him and turns to one of her ardent admirers, Mr. Bear ceasing to exist for her. Did remove her hand, though, she notices as she ducks into the kitchen to hide her amusement.
********
Locking up the diner fell to her because she was the last one to leave. Thinking that she’d have to call her mom tonight, if she didn’t want her family here within the week, she wound her scarf around her neck and bent to pick her handbag off the diner’s front steps. Being an only daughter, she mused, wasn’t an easy thing. Even harder is being an only sister to seven brothers. The most difficult part, however, was being all that and trying to live your life your own way. She had had to leave her home and come to this remote town to feel that she was in control of her life. Immersed in her thoughts, she didn’t realize she had company until she felt someone’s breath on her neck. She whirled around. “Oh, hey Jimmy!” she managed to smile at the teenager, standing really inappropriately close to her. He was also really really drunk and seemed almost excited.
Leaning against the diner’s door, she tried to calm him down by talking to him. “How’s yo..owww!”
“Shut up,bitch!” He cut her off, a hand yanking her head back by a tight grip on her hair. Well, there goes that approach, she thought and just settled on making him mad.
“Still pissed off cuz I didn’t let you grope me that day..eeee!!” The taunt was ruined by her yowl of pain, as her hair was pulled again.
“I said, shut up!” he yelled into her face, spittle flying from his lips.
Why did I think making him mad was a good thing? While she was pondering that, Jimmy dragged her further down the steps and away from the sole streetlight in the lane. It was then she realized, young Jimmy wasn’t alone. Accompanying him were the rowdiest bunch of drunkards in this town. She felt sorry for the young man trying to fit in with men much older and tougher than him. “Aww Jimmy, you’re a good kid. Why are you hanging with these jerks?” She tried to reason with him. Instead of answering her, he roughly pushed her forward and the drunks surrounded her.
She understood the danger she was in, she really did, but like always, her sense of humor valiantly rose to the surface and she found her mouth delivering a quip: “You guys are seriously in danger of becoming a cliché...late at night, the lonesome heroine about to be ravished...” As the word “ravished” slipped off her tongue, she found her courage faltering. Her silence seemed to hearten the jerks and one of them, she couldn’t see which, copped a feel.
The worst thing about all of this was that she hadn’t been part of this small town for too long—a beautiful place at the top of a mountain without her nosy family where she could prove herself capable of making it in the world on her own. Now it would be her undoing. She was so far away from home, would her parents even know what happened to her? Even as all these thoughts buzzed around her, she found her foot lift and step onto the guy’s instep. Enraged, the drunk howled and backhanded her hard. She was gingerly feeling the area around the bruise forming in her cheek when she heard the roar. It sounded like a bear...a very angry one!
Seizing the moment of distraction, she started to back away from the intoxicated would-be rapists and felt her back crash into something. She turned around and corrected herself, someone. Her eyes kept rising till she met the person’s gaze. It was... “Mr. Bear?!” His huge frame was vibrating with anger.
“John, my name’s John,” he told her patiently, like he had all the time in the world. He stopped staring at the drunks and looked down to meet her eyes.
“Oh shit!” she gasped, even as she felt the compulsion snap into place, making her tipsy. A drunken giggle escaped her but she had never been this scared in her life.
********
“I’m sorry, luv.” He sounded almost sad, as he made her comfortable against a pine before he turned to the drunkards. She watched him make short work of all of them but Jimmy. Him, he saved for last. Judging by the violent way he had dealt with the others, even in her stupor, she felt the need to intervene.
“Don’t break him! Mrs. Wilkinson will be sad if you do.” He acquiesced, lifting the kid with one hand and hanging him on a sturdy branch by his pants. She couldn’t have helped the guffaw that tore out of her, even had she not been spaced out.
She couldn’t seem to stop laughing, even when he turned around and looked at her. Amused, he started towards her, his long legs eating up the distance in a few steps. “Are you all right?” His expression looked comical while vacillating between amused and concerned which started her off again. Barely getting her mirth under control, she extended a hand and he seemed to understand, bending forward. She touched his hair. “So soft…” She caressed it and he seemed lost in her touch. Eyes closed, he let her have her fun, only standing up when a shudder passed through him.
“Shall I take you home?” The words seemed reluctant.
“Your hair’s so soft, what do you wash it with?” she asked, ignoring his question.
Exasperated, he answered, “Pig fat.” Which unfortunately brought on another giggling fit.
“Not home...Mrs Wilkinson...worried”, she managed between hiccups. She felt herself being lifted up into his arms and everything went dark for a while.
When she woke up briefly, they were outside a cave. “How cliché!” she snorted. A whole lot of black later, she woke up to him pulling the covers over her. “Home?” she grunted and he bent to kiss her forehead.
“Yeah, home.” Sleep overtook her again.
********
Settled in his favorite chair, a book and the fire to keep him company, he waited for the inevitable outrage. It came as he was sure it would, as soon as the clock chimed four times. He had an eidetic memory - he never forgot what his eyes saw even once, and he had been watching her for over a month now. Closing his eyes and picturing what was happening was easy for him. All the sounds accompanying the thorough trashing of his room just made it easier.
********
She was livid. How dare he? As soon as she opened her eyes and her brain returned to functioning normally, she was out of his bed. The first casualty of her rage was the very beautiful bedside lamp. Then a bear-sized...ha! bear-sized...mug hit the floor. She screamed her outrage and let her anger build by smashing his belongings before she even thought of leaving the room. He put the book down and stood up as she entered the room in a whirlwind of flying objects and obscenities.
“You!” she glared daggers at him.
“I can explain,” he said in his careful, thoughtful manner, but her temper didn’t even give him a chance.
********
He saw a shudder run through her body and took a step back. The seams at her shoulder ripped and were joined by the sound of clothes ripping all over her body. He stood transfixed as her body appeared to grow and stretch in ways that weren't humanly possible. But then she wasn’t just human, was she? No, his hellion was the rarest female ursine shifter- a bear. And all his. He looked at her figure towering over him, her beautiful black fur gleaming in the firelight and deadly claws just waiting to gut him. He smiled.
He had known what she was right away. As soon as he entered the diner that night, her woodsy scent had surrounded him. It had been wreaking havoc with his senses all day. In the beginning, he hadn’t been able to pinpoint its source. He realized it was because she had been far away then. Now, she was right in front of him. Another shifter and a female at that, when he had given up hope of finding someone like her years ago. About to walk up to her and probably make a nuisance of himself, he realized that she hadn’t sensed him at all.
It stumped him for a while before he understood; she wasn’t a true shifter yet. The blood ran in her family--yes, but the gene wasn’t active. In fact, it wouldn’t be activated until she was in danger of losing her independence to an overbearing male shifter. He looked at her, dimpled cheeks and all polite smiles for her customers. She was trying to make her way in this world, to be independent. He couldn’t take that away from her. Even if he policed himself, his instincts would overpower all sense when it came to a potential mate. He’d want to possess her and take over her life. So, he settled for a few hours close to her every night and a glass of milk.
Looking at her now in all her ursine glory, he ached for her. She lifted a huge paw and swiped him with it. He hit the wall hard enough to break a human spine. He raised his head with a grin. It only enraged her more and she lumbered forward, lifting him up. Looking down to see his toes dangling in the air, he felt absurdly proud of her strength.
“Fight!” she growled.
He refused. She shook him like he were a toy and he felt himself flying before crashing into another wall. “Shift and fight, dammit!” she roared at his fallen form.
He looked at the crack in the wall he had just hit and his mouth ran away with him. “I was thinking of remodeling the living room anyway.”
********
She had to fight him...she couldn’t let him take over her life. She’d seen it happen to her cousins and sisters and had vowed it would never happen to her. But she couldn’t help it, she started laughing at his absurd comment. She felt her anger stem and the tightness around her heart ease. Her body started to tingle and blackness greeted her once again.
When she came to, she was bundled up in front of a crackling fire. Feeling his eyes on her, she sat up straight. “Why now?” It came out a whisper but he caught it.
“Last night, I wanted to rip those guys apart. I wasn’t thinking straight. Actually, I wasn’t thinking anything other than keeping you safe. Your bear must have thought my anger was aimed at you and that woke her up.”
She liked how he talked about her bear. Like they weren’t one and the same but two different personalities sharing a body and he knew that. “It’ll get easier, now that you’ve shifted once. You won’t faint all the time, y’know?” He seemed to be walking on eggshells.
She understood this was how it was supposed to happen. When a female bear recognized her mate, she became drunk on all the happy, for at least a few hours. It was nature’s way of giving the guy a chance to claim his mate. It wasn’t fair but left on their own, a female would fight herself bloody before she surrendered. She also realized none of this was his fault. He had known who she was and hadn’t once forced her to notice him. She winced as she thought of the thrashing she’d given him and his trashed bedroom. Maybe she could give this a chance, take it slow. Hey, if it didn’t work, they could always shift and duke it out, right? And then there was her family, they’d make oatmeal out of him just to protect her. Raising her head, she watched him pick up stuff she had thrown around in her rage, the very picture of nonchalance. But she knew, he was waiting for her decision and giving her the space to reach it too.
He looked like he couldn’t believe this was happening.
“I’m Jane, by the way”, she said, right before the stress of her first shift caught up to her and she started snoring.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Midu Hadi loves to read and tell stories. This is her first time publishing one. You can follow her at www.goodreads.com/midu